As mobile, wireless, and/or handheld portable devices increasingly become multifunctional, “all-in-one,” communication devices, these handheld portable devices integrate an increasingly wide range of functions for handling a plurality of wireless communication services. For example, a single handheld portable device may enable Bluetooth communications and wireless local area network (WLAN) communications.
Much of the front end processing for wireless communications services is performed in analog circuitry. Front end processing within a portable device may comprise a range of operations that involve the reception of radio frequency (RF) signals, typically received via an antenna that is communicatively coupled to the portable device. Receiver tasks performed on an RF signal may include demodulation, filtering, and analog to digital conversion (ADC), for example. Noise considerations may be important since the strength of the received RF signal may be low. The resulting front-end processed signal may be referred to as a baseband signal. The baseband signal typically contains digital data, which may be subsequently processed in digital circuitry within the portable device.
Front end processing within a portable device may also include transmission of RF signals. Transmitter tasks performed on a baseband signal may include digital to analog conversion (DAC), filtering, modulation, and power amplification (PA), for example. The power amplified, RF signal, is typically transmitted via an antenna that is communicatively coupled to the portable device by some means. The antenna utilized for receiving an RF signal at a portable device may or may not be the same antenna that is utilized for transmitting an RF signal from the portable device.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.